The Life of Samuel Johnson LL.D., by James Boswell

1747: AETAT. 38.

This year his old pupil and friend, David Garrick, having become joint patentee and manager of Drury-lane theatre,
Johnson honoured his opening of it with a Prologue, which for just and manly dramatick criticism, on the whole range of
the English stage, as well as for poetical excellence, is unrivalled. Like the celebrated Epilogue to the Distressed
Mother, it was, during the season, often called for by the audience.

But the year 1747 is distinguished as the epoch, when Johnson’s arduous and important work, his DICTIONARY OF THE
ENGLISH LANGUAGE, was announced to the world, by the publication of its Plan or Prospectus.

How long this immense undertaking had been the object of his contemplation, I do not know. I once asked him by what
means he had attained to that astonishing knowledge of our language, by which he was enabled to realise a design of
such extent, and accumulated difficulty. He told me, that ‘it was not the effect of particular study; but that it had
grown up in his mind insensibly.’ I have been informed by Mr. James Dodsley, that several years before this period,
when Johnson was one day sitting in his brother Robert’s shop, he heard his brother suggest to him, that a Dictionary
of the English Language would be a work that would be well received by the publick; that Johnson seemed at first to
catch at the proposition, but, after a pause, said, in his abrupt decisive manner, ‘I believe I shall not undertake
it.’ That he, however, had bestowed much thought upon the subject, before he published his Plan, is evident from the
enlarged, clear, and accurate views which it exhibits; and we find him mentioning in that tract, that many of the
writers whose testimonies were to be produced as authorities, were selected by Pope; which proves that he had been
furnished, probably by Mr. Robert Dodsley, with whatever hints that eminent poet had contributed towards a great
literary project, that had been the subject of important consideration in a former reign.

The booksellers who contracted with Johnson, single and unaided, for the execution of a work, which in other
countries has not been effected but by the co-operating exertions of many, were Mr. Robert Dodsley, Mr. Charles Hitch,
Mr. Andrew Millar, the two Messieurs Longman, and the two Messieurs Knapton. The price stipulated was fifteen hundred
and seventy-five pounds.

The Plan, was addressed to Philip Dormer, Earl of Chesterfield, then one of his Majesty’s Principal Secretaries of
State; a nobleman who was very ambitious of literary distinction, and who, upon being informed of the design, had
expressed himself in terms very favourable to its success. There is, perhaps in every thing of any consequence, a
secret history which it would be amusing to know, could we have it authentically communicated. Johnson told me, ‘Sir,
the way in which the Plan of my Dictionary came to be inscribed to Lord Chesterfield, was this: I had neglected to
write it by the time appointed. Dodsley suggested a desire to have it addressed to Lord Chesterfield. I laid hold of
this as a pretext for delay, that it might be better done, and let Dodsley have his desire. I said to my friend, Dr.
Bathurst, “Now if any good comes of my addressing to Lord Chesterfield, it will be ascribed to deep policy, when, in
fact, it was only a casual excuse for laziness.”’

Dr. Adams found him one day busy at his Dictionary, when the following dialogue ensued. ‘ADAMS. This is a great
work, Sir. How are you to get all the etymologies? JOHNSON. Why, Sir, here is a shelf with Junius, and Skinner, and
others; and there is a Welch gentleman who has published a collection of Welch proverbs, who will help me with the
Welch. ADAMS. But, Sir, how can you do this in three years? JOHNSON. Sir, I have no doubt that I can do it in three
years. ADAMS. But the French Academy, which consists of forty members, took forty years to compile their Dictionary.
JOHNSON. Sir, thus it is. This is the proportion. Let me see; forty times forty is sixteen hundred. As three to sixteen
hundred, so is the proportion of an Englishman to a Frenchman.’ With so much ease and pleasantry could he talk of that
prodigious labour which he had undertaken to execute.

For the mechanical part he employed, as he told me, six amanuenses; and let it be remembered by the natives of
North-Britain, to whom he is supposed to have been so hostile, that five of them were of that country. There were two
Messieurs Macbean; Mr. Shiels, who we shall hereafter see partly wrote the Lives of the Poets to which the name of
Cibber is affixed; Mr. Stewart, son of Mr. George Stewart, bookseller at Edinburgh; and a Mr. Maitland. The sixth of
these humble assistants was Mr. Peyton, who, I believe, taught French, and published some elementary tracts.

To all these painful labourers, Johnson shewed a never-ceasing kindness, so far as they stood in need of it. The
elder Mr. Macbean had afterwards the honour of being Librarian to Archibald, Duke of Argyle, for many years, but was
left without a shilling. Johnson wrote for him a Preface to A System of Ancient Geography; and, by the favour of Lord
Thurlow, got him admitted a poor brother of the Charterhouse. For Shiels, who died of a consumption, he had much
tenderness; and it has been thought that some choice sentences in the Lives of the Poets were supplied by him. Peyton,
when reduced to penury, had frequent aid from the bounty of Johnson, who at last was at the expense of burying both him
and his wife.

While the Dictionary was going forward, Johnson lived part of the time in Holborn, part in Gough-square,
Fleet-street; and he had an upper room fitted up like a counting-house for the purpose, in which he gave to the
copyists their several tasks. The words, partly taken from other dictionaries, and partly supplied by himself, having
been first written down with spaces left between them, he delivered in writing their etymologies, definitions, and
various significations. The authorities were copied from the books themselves, in which he had marked the passages with
a black-lead pencil, the traces of which could easily be effaced. I have seen several of them, in which that trouble
had not been taken; so that they were just as when used by the copyists. It is remarkable, that he was so attentive in
the choice of the passages in which words were authorised, that one may read page after page of his Dictionary with
improvement and pleasure; and it should not pass unobserved, that he has quoted no authour whose writings had a
tendency to hurt sound religion and morality.

The necessary expense of preparing a work of such magnitude for the press, must have been a considerable deduction
from the price stipulated to be paid for the copy-right. I understand that nothing was allowed by the booksellers on
that account; and I remember his telling me, that a large portion of it having by mistake been written upon both sides
of the paper, so as to be inconvenient for the compositor, it cost him twenty pounds to have it transcribed upon one
side only.

He is now to be considered as ‘tugging at his oar,’ as engaged in a steady continued course of occupation,
sufficient to employ all his time for some years; and which was the best preventive of that constitutional melancholy
which was ever lurking about him, ready to trouble his quiet. But his enlarged and lively mind could not be satisfied
without more diversity of employment, and the pleasure of animated relaxation. He therefore not only exerted his
talents in occasional composition very different from Lexicography, but formed a club in Ivy-lane, Paternoster-row,
with a view to enjoy literary discussion, and amuse his evening hours. The members associated with him in this little
society were his beloved friend Dr. Richard Bathurst, Mr. Hawkesworth, afterwards well known by his writings, Mr. John
Hawkins, an attorney, and a few others of different professions.